The Source of my 5 Favorite Fruits

Daily writing prompt

List your top 5 favorite fruits.

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My five favorite fruits are: love, joy, peace, kindness, and self-control. The source that causes those fruits to grow, ripen, and flourish in a human being is the Spirit of the living God. The Bible calls them “the fruit of the Spirit.” There are four more: patience, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness.

Why don’t we live in a world full of those fruits? It is because that sin has severed people’s connection with the Spirit of the loving, holy God and turned humans into dead men walking–empty shells who reject God’s way, abandon the truth, and are lifeless inside. God longs for all people to come to life in His presence and to experience the beauty of His reality and the fruit of His Spirit, day and night.

Because of His great love and grace for people, God who raised Jesus from the dead shines His resurrection power into the death cold hardness of the human heart. He calls and knocks to enter in and as many as receive Him and follow His Spirit become life-filled children of God. They live by the faith of the Son of God as the risen Jesus lives in and through them and seats them in the supernatural dimensions of the heavenly realms so they can be living demonstrations of His grace and kindness on earth as it is in Heaven, not in theological theory but in day-to-day reality.

Born again Christ-followers have been rescued from spiritual death so they can continually surrender the control of their mind, will, desires, and emotions to the risen Lord Jesus Christ and manifest His presence and the fruit of His Spirit on earth as people who are seated in Heaven. The world desperately needs all born again Christ-followers to courageously, boldly, lovingly, and humbly shine His light by submitting to and obeying the inner promptings of His Spirit.

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Religious Boxes and Dry Pipes

Jesus is more real than the device you’re reading this on. What you are now seeing on this screen will soon be gone but Jesus will never pass away. Download Christ’s operating system into your heart and let Him provide the programming that runs within you day and night.

The Sunday morning religious box tries to contain Jesus under its control. Worship, listen to, and obey the risen Jesus outside of the Sunday morning religious box.

True Christianity is intuitional not institutional. It’s built on direct personal revelation from the living God, not on human organization. Let the risen Jesus out of the religious box and you’ll be amazed at what He does in and through you.

Religious people had Jesus killed. They didn’t want divine revelation or heart-to-heart relationship with God. They just wanted to protect and preserve their rituals.

Christianity has built religious organizations called churches, but they are too often dry like this pipe and Christ’s living water has to find a way to flow outside of their control like the water flowing beneath the pipe.

Keeping Jesus
In a church box
Too often blocks
Him from real life.

Jesus wants to
Live and reside
And work inside
Of your heart, 
Not be stuffed inside
A Sunday church box.

Open Up to Agape

Daily writing prompt

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

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Every day
I can open up
To agape.

When Christ came to pay
The price for my sin,
That was agape.

When Jesus calls me
To follow and obey
Him throughout the day,
That is agape.

Every time I pray
And God fills me
With His joy,
That’s agape.

When Jesus molds me
Like a potter
Working with his clay,
That is agape.

Every time I see
An inner ray
Of God’s bright light,
That’s agape.

Every time Christ calls me
To come back to Him
When I stray away,
That is agape.

I long to be able
To constantly convey
To hurting people
The love called agape!

If your skies are gray
And you feel dismay
Open your heart
To God’s agape.

The Invisible Man Who Changed My Life

Daily writing prompt

Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.

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I didn’t see him with my eyes, but although he was invisible to me, he changed my life. In an instant everything shifted within me and my whole life seemed different. I’ve never been the same since the moment I first encountered his presence. I’ve spent the rest of my life seeking to align my mind to the mind of Christ.

Ever since then I have wanted to capitalize the pronouns that I use to refer to Him because I believe that although He is fully human, He is more than a man. I believe that Jesus Christ is also fully God and that He is present and active in human beings today through the Holy Spirit. I know that because He is always working inside of me, and because I frequently see Him working in and through other people.

The Bible says: “We have the mind of Christ.” When Christ-followers literally align their mind with Christ’s, they begin to spontaneously overflow with His thoughts and insights.

To align your mind with Christ requires childlike trust and innocent spontaneity. Then you can learn to freely flow with His Spirit as He actively lives and works within you to continually lead and direct you to His “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Renew your mind by aligning it with Christ’s throughout each day. Then the fruit of His Spirit will ever flow through your consciousness, and He will empower you to show His presence and reality to those around you as you supernaturally demonstrate His words that are called the “Beatitudes.” (Run a quick search for them.)

When Christ-followers are encouraged to freely flow with and obey God’s Spirit, Jesus builds His ekklesia for all to see! Then Christ shines through His followers like the sun.

Inner Freedom!

Daily writing prompt

What does freedom mean to you?

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Without inner freedom–freedom from the dominion of our own desire and self-will–we humans are still in bondage no matter how much we pridefully proclaim and celebrate our liberty. People like to use outward freedom as an excuse to justify their inner bondage but there’s no real freedom without inner freedom.

True freedom is freedom from mental and emotional torment and oppression. Without inner freedom we human beings are only pretending to be free. Until we find freedom within, outward freedom will only be superficial. No Bill of Rights can give people inner freedom. They have to find that for themselves.

The key to inner freedom is to be in Christ. To be in Christ is to no longer live by your will and desires. It is to align and surrender your will and desires to His–to go wherever He takes you–to live moment by moment in obedience to and reliance on Him. It is to be crucified with Christ–to be dead to your own will and desires. To be in Christ is to be resurrected, inhabited, and led by His presence.

The more you align your will and desires with Jesus the more you will see His power flowing in and through you. The more you are in Christ, the more you will hear His voice. You can hear Him. Listen closely throughout each day.

When you’re feeling encouraged for no reason, you’re hearing Jesus. Listen to Him. When you’re feeling forgiven and you know you don’t deserve it, you’re hearing Jesus.

When you’re experiencing inner peace in the middle of one of life’s storms, you’re hearing Jesus. When you’re experiencing joy while your heart is breaking, you’re hearing Jesus.

When you’re feeling patient in the middle of a major delay, you’re hearing Jesus. When you’re feeling kind in a hostile environment, you’re hearing Jesus.

When you’re empowered to do good when you want to be bad, you’re hearing Jesus. When you’re being faithful when you want to quit, you’re hearing Jesus.

When you’re being gentle when you want to lash out, you’re hearing Jesus. When you’re keeping yourself under control when you want to lose it, you’re hearing Jesus. Always listen for His voice.

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I disagree with almost all public figures.

Daily writing prompt

What public figure do you disagree with the most?

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We live in an age in the Western world where public figures encourage us to pursue pleasure, desires, comfort, and government support for our desires. I believe that is a deceptive and dangerous focus, so I disagree with almost all public figures.

A focus on the satisfaction of personal desires reveals the insight that our human desires are never fully satisfied. Pursuing their fulfilment is a lifelong treadmill. True fulfillment comes when we get off of the treadmill and search for inner peace instead of desire-fulfillment.

Human beings are made in the image of God, but rebellion, pleasure-seeking, and domination by self-focused desire has separated us from the presence and character of God to the point that we have become a faded, cracked, and contorted copy of a photograph of God. We have abandoned the continual cultivation of heart-connection with God for lesser pursuits that entangle and entrap us in self-deceptive pleasures and in tormenting thoughts.

In your finer and nobler moments, notice the remnants of God’s image (His still small voice) stirring in your heart and calling you to return to, surrender to, and daily live in obedience to His presence. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, God has made a way for you to leave your prison of guilt and shame behind and be reconciled to ongoing loving intimacy with Him.

The burnt embers of the image of God in you can become “Christ in you, the hope of glory,”–God’s eternal flame in your heart. Shift your pursuit of pleasure to the pursuit of Christ’s presence. Exchange your domination by desires (the dominion of darkness) for the kingdom of God, the full and complete dominion of the risen Jesus within and through your heart. Be reconciled to God and demonstrate that reconciliation in what you say, think, and do. Be a living demonstration to other people that they, too, can be joyously reconciled to God.

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My career plan is write away (to where the words go).

Daily writing prompt

What is your career plan?

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My career plan is to write away every day and see where the words take me. I try to take off my hard hat, loosen up my stiff neck, set aside my analysis, and listen to the still small voice within me. So, let’s see where the words go today.

Uplifting words
Begin to flow
And within me grow
But I don’t know
Where they are
About to go
Until they show
The truth they tow.
They seem to blow
Into my heart
And then they start
To assemble
Themselves together.
So, I lie low
And listen
Through God’s window
In my soul.

Christ gives me
New desires.
He inspires
Me to do
As God requires.
Christ takes His plyers
And He rewires
My identity
So my heart
Never tires
Of the warmth
Of His fire’s
Pure glowing
Within me.

Let your heart be a sail
That always flows
With the wind
Of God’s Spirit
And always goes
Where He leads.

It’s easy to
Stare at your phone
And scroll on and on
As if you were
A mindless drone.

It’s easy to
Sit in a church
With your hard hat on
And listen to words
That can seem to drone
On and on.

It’s never easy
To make the choice
To crash the drone,
Get off the phone,
And listen to God’s voice
Until you discover
That your heart was made
To always rejoice
In the Spirit
Of the Lord.

I like people
Who are
Different than me.
They give me
Another perspective
To see.
Love doesn’t
Have to stop
When we disagree.

Two weeks ago, on a trip to southern Italy, I saw a woman from Sierra Leone selling trinkets on the street. She was mostly being ignored so I approached her. She didn’t speak English, so I asked if she spoke Spanish. She responded that she did, and we had a delightful conversation and connected heart-to-heart. Afterwards she gave me a tiny bracelet as narrow as a string and I put it in my wallet. Just now as I looked down, I noticed the outline of a cross on the back of my wallet, I realized that it was the string bracelet she gave me. I picked up my wallet and the way the light hit it the cross turned into the number 8 (which stands for new beginning) and then into a butterfly (which represents new life). God speaks through the humblest people and the simplest things.

Sometimes we search so hard for miracles that we overlook the simple supernatural of God’s still small voice. Look and see! Open your heart and mind to SI (Supernatural Intelligence) — direct personal revelation from God.

If you compare your custom-made life to other people’s life it will make it look like a hand-me-down. Your life is beyond compare!

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I See Beautiful Performances Every Day

Daily writing prompt

What was the last live performance you saw?

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I see beautiful live performances every day! I see the sun, clouds, lightening, rain, stars and the moon performing in the sky as the tree branches wave them on.

I see Spirit-led performances when I observe acts of kindness, humility, generosity, compassion, and forgiveness. I see heart-touching performances when I see and hear people tenderly pray out loud for one another.

Throughout each day I see live performances in my heart when I focus my inner attention on the risen Jesus and notice how He is living and working within me and guiding me step-by-step.

Let the risen Jesus fulfill His promise to live in and through you throughout each and every day. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27.

When people accept Christ’s promise to lead them by His Spirit and begin to courageously, moment-by-moment, follow and obey His inner promptings, glorious spiritual awakening will sweep through their heart and their land.

The best performance on earth is to gaze at the living resurrected Jesus. Don’t let anything distract you from Him. Let His Spirit ever perform live in your heart!

Read the following promises. Memorize them. Receive them. Let Jesus perform them in your heart and dazzle you with His presence.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17.

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:17.

“When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you” John 16:13-14.

“As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in Him.” 1 John 2:27.

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” Romans 8:14.

The best view on earth is to look with your heart at the living resurrected Jesus. “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Hm he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 1:2

Christianity is
A daily Spirit-led walk,
Not a weekly
Religious talk.

Love Leads to Community Involvement

Daily writing prompt

What do you do to be involved in the community?

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Instead of asking Christians where they go to church, ask them how they are demonstrating the reality of the living Jesus in society. Don’t just hear a sermon–be one! Speak and demonstrate God’s word yourself. “Christ in you” is limited only by your unwillingness to believe and obey Him. “Quench not the Spirit.”

When people who read the Bible and listen to the Holy Spirit throughout the week go to church, they don’t need a sermon. They need an open mic so they can share what God has been showing them. See 1 Corinthians 14:26.

There are three things Christ-followers can rely on: 1) Faith–moment-by-moment dependence on the risen Jesus; 2) Hope–positive expectations as we allow God’s Spirit to move and prompt us from within; and 3) Agape–God’s never-failing caring and compassion for us and His desire to always connect heart-to-heart with us. Faith and hope spring from the direct revelation and experience of God’s agape in a human heart–a revelation far beyond flesh and blood and human understanding. The body of Christ is called to gather and demonstrate God’s agape supernaturally flowing in their midst as they obey the 50+ New Testament “one another commands” and “value others above yourselves.”

Just because some Legos are in the same box doesn’t mean that they are assembled together. Just because Christians are attending the same church service doesn’t mean that they have assembled themselves together. “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.” Hebrews 10:24-25. Truly “assembling together” requires that Christians consider one another, provoke one another to love and good works, and exhort one another.

Since Christians are in every country, the idea of Christian nationalism makes no sense. The body of Christ is worldwide, not on any nation’s side. The rainbow in the sky is God’s promise that reminds us of our true identity in the One who created us male and female. It reminds us that we are called to follow Him, not our own desires, feelings, or opinions.

My Job for a Never-Ending Day

Daily writing prompt

What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?

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My job for the never-ending day that’s on its way will be to bask in, reflect, and radiate the love of God. I will celebrate His love, His mercy, and His presence forever.

Let Love Blaze With God’s Spirit

Hearing what
A sermon says
Without checking
What the Bible says
Is dangerous.
Hearing what
The Spirit says
As you read
What the Bible says
Will set your heart
On fire with blazes
Of God’s love,
But hearing
What the Spirit says
Without doing
What He says
Is self-deception.
The Bible is
A hearing aid
To help you hear
And inspire you
To obey
What the Spirit says.
It’s not a textbook
To be taught.
Its words are
A heart-warming fire
To be caught,
Carried and spread
Throughout each day.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t follow an exact pattern. The Holy Spirit leads as He wills if a congregation is willing and courageous enough to obey Him.

It’s very frustrating for me to attend a church where the Holy Spirit isn’t allowed to take direct control of the meeting. It takes more than a lifetime of sermon-hearing to make someone a Christian. “He who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying.”

Just because some Legos are in the same box doesn’t mean that they are assembled together. Just because Christians are attending the same church service doesn’t mean that they have assembled themselves together. “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.” Hebrews 10:24-25. Truly assembling together requires that we consider one another, provoke one another to love and good works, and exhort one another.

When people who read the Bible and listen to the Holy Spirit throughout the week go to church, they don’t need a sermon. They need an open mic so they can share what God has been showing them. See 1 Corinthians 14:26.

Since Christians are in every country, the idea of Christian nationalism makes no sense. The body of Christ is worldwide, not on any nation’s side.

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